The World That We Lost
by Heroi Oscura
Summary: After the first challenge of Pahkitew Island, the contestants were feeling a little tired from it so they decided to enjoy the beach. However, they find a mysterious cave nearby and inside they find a young programmer who invites them to play a game she has created. Soon, the contestants find themselves embroiled in a battle where they must save the world.
1. Pilot

Chapter 1: Pilot

This story may get a bit melodramatic, so if that is any sort of turnoff for you, I suggest not reading it.

Xxx

"I'd like to say it was a hard decision," Chris said, as the two teams were seated on logs next to him, watching him with wary eyes. "But... let's keep it real. Team Pimâpotew Kinosewak wins the challenge!" At these words, said team began to cheer (aside from Max), as Chris began to explain the rewards.

Once he was done shamelessly promoting, Chris walked over to the other team. "Team Waneyihtam Maskwak! Please go vote! One member of your team is heading home today." He only grinned as the team gave audible groans of protest.

All of sudden, someone yelled. "Alright! That's it. Cut or whatever." The cameras that were pointing at the teens and the host, were pointed downwards as the crew began to fiddle with their equipment.

Chris let out a sigh and glared at the two teams. "You guys are welcome to do anything you want until the elimination ceremony," he told them, before starting to smooth out his hair. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going clean up." He walked off with Chef and the rest of the crew following him.

Once he had left, Dave let his head fall into his lap. "This couldn't have gone worse," he groaned.

Sky patted him on the back, awkwardly. "There, there," she tried to console. "We'll get them next time."

Dave just gave her a look. "Do you really believe that?"

Sky looked around at their team. Beardo was beat boxing again with Ella singing to it, making a musical concoction that made her ears bleed. Leonard was near his collapsed "wizard's tower," shouting a bunch of gibberish at it, while Shawn watched on, slurping noisily from his soup can. "Maybe?" She said, with a shaky smile.

Dave simply groaned again, before glaring at a particular person. "I know who I'm voting for…" he muttered.

Meanwhile with the Kinosewaks, were having their own problems. "Sidekick!" Max demanding glaring at Scarlett. "Do you mind complimenting me on my evil during this challenge?"

Scarlett audibly groaned, something that Max didn't catch, as he continued to blather on without a care in the world.

"Please!" Topher said in response to Max. "I was clearly the star of the show." He frowned. "I wonder if the camera captured the perfect side of my face…?" he wondered aloud.

"At least you weren't like Samey," Amy scoffed. "She was practically useless!"

"No, I wasn't-!" She started to protest.

Topher cut her off. "Yeah, you're right." He paused, before posing, making gun hands towards Samey. "Better try harder next Samey. Or else your team will give you... the old boot!" He grinned. "How was that?"

Rodney frowned. "What was it?"

Topher groaned. "My Chris impression! Duh!"

"Alright!" Jasmine suddenly stood up from her eat and clapped her hands together, catching the attention of everyone. "Let's all head to the beach! I'm sure we could all use some relaxation after being thrown out of a falling plane."

"We don't have swimsuits," Scarlett pointed out.

"I agree," Sky said, flashing a smile at her teammates. "We just need some rest and relaxation for now. We could all use it."

Everyone seemed to hesitate and a moment of silence passed between them all.

Surprisingly, it was Dave who broke it. "Sure," he said with a shrug. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"Famous last words," Shawn muttered.

Xxx

"This does not suit my evil intentions," Max grumbled, unhappily, sitting on a small rock. He glanced at his "sidekick," who was observing a sandcastle that Ella and Rodney were building. Most of the others were either doing the same or wading the shallow water. He repositioned himself in an effort to be more comfortable. "This sucks."

"Are you kidding, man?" Shawn hissed, keeping lookout on a large boulder. "This is the perfect chance for zombie to get us! It happened every time we let our guard down."

Dave frowned, pausing his construction of a small castle to stare at the two. "You know I can't tell who's the stranger out of the two of you."

"Alright, I'm done!" Sugar said cheerfully, proudly displaying her own sandcastle, which was hastily made with practically the entire castle ready to collapse under its own weight. "Now let's get the judges to vote on the best! Even though we know who clearly won." She sniggered.

"This was a contest?" Rodney asked, clearly confused.

Ella skipped towards Sugar's castle, with beaming smile. "Oh, it looks wonderful!" she complimented. "I would definitely love to live there."

"No one asked you," Sugar growled.

"O-Kay...?" Ella blinked.

Jasmine, followed by Sky, wandered back from the water. Looking up at the sky, she said, "I think we should start heading back. It's starting to turn dark."

Beardo made a sound, that sounded like a vehicle coming to sudden stop. Everyone turned to him. "What?" Dave asked. When he continued to make various noises, Dave said, "Use words, please."

Beardo paused, before sighing. "I heard from one of the interns that Chris has a secret stash of food in a cave near here," he muttered, twiddling his thumbs.

Topher jumped up. "Really?!" He clenched a fist. "We've got to get in there. If they're feeding Chris that, then they have to be feeding me the same thing. I'm his successor!"

Sky frowned. "His successor?"

"Uh...um... I meant his biggest fan!" Topher laughed, nervously. He turned to Beardo. "So where is this cave?"

Beardo pointed to his right, where the narrow strip of beach that they were on, narrowed even further into the rocks, bounding over the corner of a small cliff, disappearing completely.

"Past there?" When Beardo nodded, Topher immediately started to make his way. "Come on! We can't let him get away with this!"

Everyone exchanged a look. "Should we?" Samey asked.

Amy rolled her eyes. "No one asked you," she said harshly, making Samey flinch.

"Maybe there'll be trolls or goblins on which I can cast my spells onto," Leonard said, cheerfully, waving his wand around. "I need the practice."

"I don't think there's any problem," Scarlett added her input, starting to follow Topher. "If we're going to spend more than a week on this island then we might actually need food. I doubt Chris intends to provide us with any."

Jasmine shrugged. "Well, she does have a good point."

Scarlett adjusted her glasses. "I always do," she stated, plainly, turning the bend and disappearing.

Everyone began to follow her, being careful not to get their shoes wet, and when they turned the corner they noticed that Beardo was right. There was a small cave that jutted into the cliffside, its interior completely dark with no sign of light.

Wordlessly they all filled in, with Scarlett and Topher leading the charge. They entered the cave and continued to walk straight forward as the entrance slowly grew smaller behind them, the light from it growing dimmer, until they are all in pitch black darkness.

As if compelled by something otherworldly (something that delighted Leonard to no end), they continued on, no one speaking a word, the only sound the occasional grunt and drip of water. Eventually, after a minute of walking, a small blue light began to appear at the end. It slowly began to grow larger as they continued forward, stumbling into a small room with various monsters shining all over the walls.

Dave went up to investigate one of them. "What is this place?" he wondered, aloud, noting that the screens were showing various areas on the island including the junk pile where they had had their recent challenge take place.

"Who cares?" Topher grumbled, scanning the room. "Let's just find the grub and get out of here."

"Excuse me... Who are you?" A sudden unknown voice spoke up. Everyone whirled around to face the entrance, to find a young woman standing there, wearing a button down t-shirt and jeans with a wool jacket in her arms. She had short-cropped blonde hair and square glasses over her eyes.

Ella quickly pried her hands away from the console and blushed. "I didn't touch anything!"

"I did," Max proudly stated. "Because it was the _evil_ thing to do."

The woman looked over the contestants, some looking guilty others looks suspicious, with a weary smile. "Well we certainly have a colorful cast this season," she remarked, cheerfully.

"Who are you?" Scarlett asked. "What's this room for?"

The woman sat down in nearby swivel chair with a huff. "My name's Toriel,"

Leonard gasped. "That sounds like a name an elf would have."

Toriel laughed. "It certainly is."

"And this?" Sky gestured to their surroundings.

"Cameras," Toriel replied, simply. "It's used to monitor things on the island and find any more footage of you all that we can use on the show." She winced and apologized, "Sorry."

"No food?" Shawn asked.

She shook her head, looking mystified.

They all groaned.

Toriel just frowned. "In any case, since you're all here, would you care to play a game?"

"A game?" Rodney perked up. "What kind of game?"

She gestured to a small black object with a metal stem and base with what looked like a black piece of armor on the top, in the middle in the room, that none of them had noticed before she had pointed it out. "I'm using this place as inspiration," she said. "The premise is that 15 alien enemies are going to attack this planet. You control a giant mech that is used to defeat these enemies and save the world."

Seeing their confused faces, she was prompted to explain further. "Um... I've always wanted to be a video game designer." She blushed. "I'm hoping I can release this to get out of this shitty job with Chris.."

"Not exactly original, isn't it?" Dave commented.

Toriel shrugged. "Would you all like to try it out?" she asked, gesturing again to the small object in the middle of the room. "Just place your hand on that. It's kinda like a entrance for the chosen heroes." She chuckled dryly at that.

"Sure!" Without a second thought, Leonard placed his hand on the plate. A small beep was heard on a nearby monster where it displayed his name.

Both Beardo and Ella followed suit quickly, placing their hands on the small plate. Sugar did so herself, after muttering something about Ella, underneath her breath.

"Um…" Rodney scratched the back of his neck. "Are you going to be playing?" When Toriel nodded, he blushed and placed his hand onto the plate.

"Can I play as the bad guy?" Max questioned.

"I don't see why not."

Max grinned and placed his hand, signing himself into the game.

Scarlett watched looking a bit apprehensive, as both Topher and Shawn placed their hands. "How are we exactly are we going to play when we competing in challenges?" she asked.

Toriel shrugged. "It's only for now. I might be able to convince Chris. It won't hurt to have some game testers prior. Besides what else are you going to in between challenges?"

"Challenges? Maybe plan ahead for the future?" Scarlett pointed out, watching Dave and Sky join in on the fun.

Toriel smiled sincerely. "It's just a game. What's the worst that could happen?"

Scarlett sighed, placing her hand on the plate soon followed by Jasmine. "I guess you have a good point," she muttered, seeing their names flash onto the screen.

Amy and Samey were the last ones up. Amy put her hand on the plate immediately, smirking as she saw her name turn up with a small _ding!_ Samey hesitated, her hand wavering above the plate.

"What's wrong, Samey?" Amy asked, her voice dripping with malice.

"I don't know," she said in a small voice. "I… I just have a bad feeling about this."

Amy rolled her eyes, forcing Samey's hand to touch the plate. "Don't be such a wimp," she scolded, as Samey flinched.

Toriel smiled softly, as she scrolled down the list of names. Fourteen in all. "Thank you," she whispered, looking up at the ceiling with a satisfied look.

"What?" Jasmine frowned.

"Nothing." Toriel stretched, before laying her gaze on everyone, suddenly looking more serious. "The enemies will appear one after another," she explained. "I'll defeat the first one in order to show you how the controls work. After that… It'll be your turn." She glanced at her monitor. "It's almost time for elimination ceremony."

"It is?!" Dave cried. He hadn't realized it had been that long.

"You should go," Toriel insisted. "You guys can always come back later to play, if you want."

Sky hesitated, but figured that she was right. "Come on guys," she said, taking the leadership role. "We better get out of here, before Chris penalizes us or something." Everyone on the same team as her nodded, following her out of the cave.

"What about us?" Samey asked.

Toriel frowned. "We can't play the game without the others," she explained. "You are all better off going to your shelter for tonight."

Jasmine nodded and drafted to head out of the cave with her own team following. However Scarlett stayed behind, glancing around at the small mysterious room before leaving, muttering various things underneath her breath.

Xxx

"The last marshmallow goes to…" Chris paused letting the drama slowly build up, laughing internally as Leonard and Beardo grow more and more frightened. "Leonard," he finally said, tossing the fake wizard the treat.

"Ah!" cheered Leonard, catching it in his hands. "Marvelous."

Beards made a small imitation of a certain video game character losing a life, to which Dave contentedly sighed, "Game Over," with a peaceful smile.

"This island is named Pahkitew, which is the Cree word for 'exploded,'" Chris explained, speaking more to the camera than the contestants. "So we thought it fitting that this season's mode of transportation should be something with a bang."

A crappy transition later, the contestants and Chris stood on a cliff in front of an object that was covered with a white cloth. "Without further ado, I give you," Chris announced as Chef pulled off the cloth to reveal a giant black and white cannon. "The Cannon of Shame!"

Everyone gasped dramatically, as Beardo popped out the other end. "Any last words?" Chris asked the newly eliminated. Beards just shook his head. "Well then, So long Beardo," the host cheered, pressing a red button he had in his hand.

 _Boom!_

Beardo went flying across the ocean, his body growing smaller and smaller as he flew away. As he flew, the rest of the Maskwaks could hear him yell, "It was really nice to meet all of you!" Soon he disappeared across the horizon.

"You know what's weird?" Chris said, turning to the camera, before grinning and shrugging his shoulders. "I already don't miss him!" He snickered. "Well… that's one down and thirteen to go! Who's the next human cannonball?! There are just too many good choices! Tune in and find out yourself here on Total. Drama. PAAAHKITEW ISLAND!" After a few minutes on holding his pose, Chris paused and coughed lightly into his hand. "How was that?"

"Perfect," drawled Dave.

"No one asked you," Chris shot back, before refocusing his attention on the cameraman, as he gave the host a thumbs up. "All right!" Chris said, stretching. "Maskwaks! You're welcome to sleep anywhere on the island, since you don't really have a shelter anymore. Me? I'm going to hit the hay. G'night!" Chris walked off, his crew following close behind.

Maskwaks stood in silence for a few moments before Leonard broke it by saying in a quiet voice, "I don't really want to get shot out of a cannon."

Sky frowned. "I'm sure there's something Chris set up to catch them at the very end," she said, reasonably. "There's no way that he would injure. I'm sure he's gotten enough lawsuits."

"Welp," Shawn said, yawning. "I think I'm going to find a nice tree to sleep in for tonight." He began to turn around but stopped dead in his tracks.

Dave caught this. "What's wrong?" he asked.

Shawn was silent, before pointing up past the cannon. With a tiny voice he asked, "What's that?"

The entire team looked up to where he was pointing, their eyes widening. Materializing in front of them was a giant black robot, with its triangular-looking head have a singular point of light, on what would look like its face.

They watched on in a stunned silence, as the rest of the robot began to materialize downward. First it's bulbous chest appeared, followed by a pair of spindly arms, with them ending at a sharp tip. Soon after, the waist and legs appeared, both just as thin as the arms, with the feet akin to high heels. Now that it had fully appeared, it hung in the air for a few moments, before falling into the ocean with a splash.

Finally, it was Shawn who spoke up. "What is _that_?" he squeaked.

"A giant robot..." Leonard gasped in awe. "This is greatest day of my life."

"You mean... from the game?" Ella asked in a small voice.

"Duh!" Sugar grinned stupidly. "It's gotta be! It's big, black... big."

"Big, huh...?" Shawn looked it over, his eyes between it and the trees on the island. "It looks about 500 meters tall."

"How do you know?" Leonard asked, with wide eyes.

"I just do." There was a reason, but Shawn figured it would take too long to explain.

A sudden thought occurred to Dave and he began to look around wildly. "Then where's enemy?! She said that enemies would appear for us to fight!"

"Um..." Sky said in a shaky voice. "It's probably that." She pointed past the robot to point at an empty piece of sea.

Only it wasn't so empty anymore. Another giant robot, with the same color scheme as the other, stood there. This one looked nothing like another, instead looking more like a spider, with four legs splayed out, two on each side, and a small diamond-shaped head with a giant oval abdomen. The head had a small blue plate where the forehead would be and quite a few shining lights when compared to the other giant black robot. Just as Sky had pointed it out, it raised its "head" up and screeched, the noise sounding like nails being dragged across a chalkboard.

Dave took a step back, his hands shaking and his eyes wide. "Holy shi-!"

They disappeared.

Xxx

Deep within the tunnels of Pahkitew's underbelly of machinery, a lone man wearing a grey security uniform sat in front of several monitors, leaning back in a leather office chair. He yawned, as his eyes began to flutter shut, his entire body relaxing so he could have some decent sleep.

"You'd better not be sleeping on the job, Daniel." The man, who was apparently called Daniel, sat up quickly, his hands fumbling in the air.

"I'm up! I'm up! Please don't kill me!" He shouted, looking wildly around. "I'm not that tasty!"

Chef, who was standing behind him, raised an eyebrow. "Calm down," he said. "I ain't gonna hurt you." He held up a small bag. "I just came to drop off yer lunch."

"Oh." Daniel blinked and took bag. "Thanks."

"I also came by to make sure you were doing your job," Chef added, satisfied by look of worry on Daniel's face.

He hesitated. "Which was... what again?"

"Looking after the teenagers," Chef growled.

"Oh, that?" Daniel waved his hand. "They're fine!" He typed a few things into a keyboard, bringing up a feed from a camera on the screen in front of him. "See?"

Chef examined the video. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"The Kinosewaks…?" Daniel scanned the video with his eyes and gaped. "They were just in there a few minutes, ago! Where'd they go?"

"Well go find them!" Chef growled. "What are you waiting for?!"

"I am!" Daniel protested, flipping through the various cameras. "I can't find them! I can't even find the Maskwaks. They've all disappeared." He paused at a certain image and his mouth dropped open. "What… what the hell _is_ this thing?!"

"What?!" Looking over the guard's shoulder, Chef found himself staring at a video feed from one of the cameras that pointed out into the ocean. It was only supposed a camera that was set up in order the crew to record wide shots of the sea in case they needed it in post-production. Unless something was right in front of it, all it would show is the never-ending expanse of the ocean.

However, now, there was something in front of it. Two somethings in fact.

Chef stared as the two giant monstrosities squared off, one looking like a spider and the other having a humanoid form. They wren't moving, instead opting to stare each down.

"I think I drank too much this morning," said Daniel in a weak tone.

"I'll call Chris," Chef said calmly, reaching for the phone in his apron pocket. "This might be just a challenge or something he's cooked up for the next challenge."

"Really?"

Chef shrugged. "Only one way to find out," he said, getting ready to make the call.

All of a sudden, one of them moved forward.

Xxx

 _Clank… Clank… Clank…_

Literally a second ago, Dave had been standing on the island. And now he was standing inside a small room with an orange tint for its walls and a bright light shining from the ceiling, facing a random assortment of chairs that were arranged in a circle and _floating_ in the fucking air. Inside that the circle, on the floor, was a mess of lines somewhat resembling a four-legged creature that he couldn't identify. He blinked unable to take in his setting, his eyes focusing on someone sitting in a chair, an armless pink swivel seat, right in front of him, and he recognized her immediately. "Toriel?!" he spluttered out, unable to believe his eyes.

She had changed clothes and lost the glasses. She was now wearing a skintight black bodysuit with no shoes. She also had a new scar down the side of her face.

She turned around, giving Dave a relieved smile. "You're all here?"

Dave glanced behind him, noticing that the rest of the Pahkitew Island contestants were there, wherever they were, with him. Even Beardo, who was sopping wet, was looking around transfixed by his surroundings.

"Where is here?" Jasmine asked. "One minute we were looking at the giant monster and the next we're in here!"

"You all saw the giant monster?" Toriel asked. "Well… welcome to its cockpit."

"Cockpit?" Amy repeated. "We're inside that _thing_?" She scoffed. "That's impossible."

"Teleportation?" murmured Scarlett. "But that's impossible…"

"See for yourself." Toriel waved her hand, and all of a sudden, the walls disappeared, revealing an helicopter view of the ocean and the island below them. With a yelp, Ella jumped back, staring as the floor disappeared to, revealing nothing but the ocean floor beneath them. A ways away was the other robot, the one shaped like a spider. It seemed to be staring at them. Waiting.

"You're kidding me," muttered Sky. "This isn't really…"

"The inside of that mech!" Leonard gaped, enthralled by the setting.

"I can't believe this…" Rodney gasped. "How…?"

"Believe it," Toriel told them. "It's all real. You'd best just accept it now." She turned her head, facing forward, looking towards the other robot with a determined look. "It's coming."

Xxx

 _Clank… Clank… Clank…_

Chef ran outside, with one of the male interns named Billy, followed him outside with a pair of binoculars. Already at the beach due to the island's quick transportation system, Chef stared at the two robots with wide eyes. "They're real?"

"Shouldn't we tell someone?!" Billy the intern shouted at him, unable to hide the fear in his voice.

"Who else can we tell?!" Chef snapped, over the loud sound of the gears, which he assumed was coming from the robots themselves. "There's only two crew members, you interns, Daniel, Chris and me."

"Call the army!" screamed Billy.

"I would if I had their number!" Chef yelled back, angrily, before noticing something happening to the crawler robot. Grabbing the binoculars out of the intern's hands, he pointed them at the robot in question, noticing that the plate on its forehead began to glow slightly blue.

Chef did the first thing that came to his mind. He slid into the ground and covered his ears. "Get down!" he yelled at the intern. The intern immediately complied, copying Chef's actions.

A both of lightning erupted from the robot's forehead striking the humanoid one right in the chest! A large clap of thunder soon followed, nearly destroying Chef's ears. The bolt continued striking its adversary for several seconds, before dissipating entirely, leaving both unharmed.

Xxx

 _Clank… Clank… Clank…_

For a while no one spoke up. Finally it was Beardo who asked, "Are we okay?"

"How did we survive that?!" growled Scarlett. "Wasn't that lightning?!"

Toriel nodded. "It was," she answered, not bothering to elaborate. Instead she said, "Make sure you watch how I fight while you have the chance. I'm not going to be able to show you again."

Topher and Rodney exchanged a confused look.

"Hey!" Amy snapped, tapping her foot. "I thought this was a game you made up?! What's going on here?!"

"Sorry," apologized Toriel. "I'm just another pawn like you guys." She leaned forward expectantly. "Now stay silent and watch."

Their robot leaned forward, a blue glow coming off of its chest, as if it were charging something up. Immediately, a barrage of light blue thin lasers flew at the opposing robot, striking it in the head causing it to shutter back a few steps.

"That was amazing…" Max said, gasping.

However, Toriel seemed displeased. "Not enough damage," she muttered. "So I'll just have to…" She leaned forward again and the robot began to move forward taking one slow step after another.

"We're moving…" Samey said.

"This thing moves with the power of thought," explained Toriel. "As long as you will it and it is physically possible, then it can be done."

The other robot began to move forward to meet them, its four legs crawling across the water with ease.

As the two got closer to each other, Sky said, "You're pretty used to driving this thing, aren't you?"

Toriel giggled. "Actually it's my first time."

Jasmine blinked. "It is?"

"Yep."

The two robots met in the middle. Their robot drew its arm back and flung it at the abdomen of the other striking it right in the middle. It retaliated by slamming its front legs into their's shoulder. Toriel made it move back a couple a steps in order to regain its footing and struck again, this time with a leg. It slammed into its legs, making it trip onto itself and fall down to its side.

The contestants screamed as they were flung around violently during the ensuing fight.

"Don't worry," Toriel tried to assure them, with her attention on making her robot close the gap between the two. "Impacts from the outside are dampened, so it won't be that huge of a whiplash. You're all completely see inside the cockpit." The spider-like robot tried to trust them back by using its hind legs and pushing them against itself. "And these things are strong."

Their robot raised both of its arm and slammed them down onto the hind legs, detaching them completely from the main body. "Got it," she murmured.

"So take them down!" Leonard said, with some decent gusto.

"Right." Their robot knelt down in front of the other and raised its arm up. The pointed end, suddenly transformed turning into a three-pronged claw. Using the newly formed claw, she grabbed the underbelly of the robot and began to pull. "First you have to use your strength to take away its armor. Just don't pause. They have the power to regenerate," she instructed, doing just that, revealing a mess of wires and circuitry underneath, along with a small circular white ball, that looked somewhat like a closed flower, right smack in the middle of it.

"That's the weak point," she said. "Each one has one and it all looks like that. The location may vary, though so be very careful. Most of the time, it's deep inside the body and protected by several layers of armor. Getting to it is no easy task." Using the claw, she picked up the weak point and pulled it out of the enemy bringing a small length of wiring with it. "When you find it…" She being to put pressure on the ball with her claw, as the object began to make an eerie creaking noise.

"Crush it."

The ball collapsed inward due to the pressure, electricity sparking around it and smoke rising from the holes.

Toriel glanced at her defeated opponent, watching as the lights faded from its "face."

She let go of the crushed weak point and let it fall to the sea with a splash, as the chairs that were floating above the ground began their descent. "It's over." She let out a sigh, looking over the rest of the seats. "Protecting this Earth is now in your hands."

 _Clank… Clank… Cla…_

They all stared at her, unable to say a single word.

"I'm so-" She started to say.

Again, they disappeared.

Xxx

They were all back on the island near the Cannon of Shame, with most of them falling too the ground at the suddenness of the teleportation. Scarlett, one of the few that didn't fall, glanced around at the ocean. "Where'd they go?" she asked no one in particular.

Everyone else followed her example trying to find the two robots. However, they seemed to have vanished into thin air.

"That…" Ella faltered, "That wasn't a dream was it?"

"Um…" Rodney rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't think we could all have the same dream."

"So, it's not a game?" Sugar asked.

"At the end," Jasmine said. "she started to say something, right? Did anyone else here it?"

No one said anything.

"I think…" Jasmine swallowed. "I think she was going to say sorry."

Xxx

 **Welcome to my new fic. I won't lie this is an idea I've only had going in my brain for around a week, but hey! I figured that this would be a pretty fun idea to do! And it kinda was to be honest.**

 **Reviews and constructive criticism would be GREATLY GREATLY appreciated for this. The main reason being that this is the first time I've ever actually written a fight scene like the one at the end. I'm not sure how I did so any tips/criticism is much needed because there are going to be quite a few fight scenes in this story.**


	2. Leonard

Chapter 2: Leonard

* * *

"I called my old pals in the army," Chef revealed.

The staff, including Chris and Chef, had gathered in the control room of the island. Daniel, the interns and the rest of the crew watching, looking between the both of them as they talked about what had occurred last night.

"What?!" Chris cried. "You can't do that. The Feds are already mad at me, so I don't need them to think that I had anything to do with a giant death robot!"

" _Two_ giant death robots," Daniel corrected, wincing when Chris glared at him.

"It's dangerous." Chef pointed out. "They may be gone now, but what if they decide to come back and attack the island this time?!" He lowered his voice. "I know what I saw."

"A trick of the light," Chris dismissed, easily.

"We saw it at night," Chef growled.

"And what did your friends say?" the host pressed.

Chef hesitated, but answered. "They said they couldn't find anything through their radar or their satellite imagery. They're still looking, but they said they couldn't get their hopes up."

"See?!" Chris threw up his arms. "It _was_ a trick of the light!" He glared at his staff. "Get back to work! We have to start to second episode soon!"

The staff and crew ran off, immediately, getting their stuff ready. Both Daniel and Billy hesitated, before following suit.

"You're making a mistake Chris," Chef warned. "You should've listened to me."

"Yeah, yeah." Chris rolled his eyes. "I'll learn to regret this later, blah blah blah." He walked off, smoothing his hair with pocket comb, leaving Chef with only his increasing sense of dread.

Xxx

 _Clack!_

The entire Pahkitew Island cast, minus Beardo, had gathered on the beach where the Maskwaks had spent the night. The team said that it hadn't been a comfortable sleep for most of them though Leonard had to disagree. All he had to do was use his levitation that gave him a rather peaceful sleep outside of Sugar's snoring. He, of course, offered to teach his team the spell, but they declined rather rudely.

Joke's on them.

 _Clack! Clack!_

"Will you stop that?!" Shawn glared at Dave.

"Sorry! I'm just nervous!" Dave protested. "Besides what are you worried about? Robot Zombies?!" He threw another pebble at a boulder for good measure.

 _Clack!_

"Ooh!" Sugar glanced at Leonard. "What are robot zombies, wizard?"

"Zombies with robot parts," Leonard answered confidently.

"Or it could be robots that don't need to power," Shawn pointed out.

When Leonard opened him mouth to retort, he was cut off by Sky, much to his displeasure. "Listen," she said. "What we need to be talking about is what we should do!"

"We should probably tell Chris," Jasmine reasoned. "We're in way too much for us to deal with it."

That made Leonard frown. Didn't these people watch or read _anything_? Going to a form of authority was always a bad idea when in this type of situation. If they told someone then they would just take it away from us.

Shawn seemed to share Leonard's opinion. "No way," he declined. "You can never trust the government."

"But it is dangerous," Ella pointed out. "What if… What if something happens next time?"

"We just won't let it happen," Topher pointed out, grinning from ear to ear, before combing back his hair. "Do you think they give heroes whatever they want?"

"Toriel said we would be able to protect the Earth," Rodney said. "How awesome is that?"

"I'd rather destroy it," Max muttered.

"Don't you think someone else could do it?" Scarlett asked, adjusting her glasses. "After all we are in the middle of a competition here. For one million dollars, no less."

"Of course!" Rodney nodded, vigorously, an easily seen blush on his face. "Someone else could do it!"

A silence passed between them all that made Leonard wince. He didn't understand what there was to discuss. Wasn't this the greatest thing ever?

Sky finally spoke up. "I mean… if it's something we're meant to do, then we can't run away from it. After all Toriel chose us to pilot this thing!"

"I agree!" Samey said, smiling. "I mean if we do this then we'll be heroes!"

"Gosh, Samey!" Amy spat. "Have you ever thought if we can actually protect it?!"

Samey winced. "Um… No."

"I don't like this," her sister said, revealing her true feelings. "We should just give it up to the government or something. It's not our responsibility or anything."

"But it's fate!" Leonard argued back, finally having enough of the situation. "It's our destiny to do this and we can't quit just because its scary!"

"This isn't a game!" Jasmine yelled back. She paused and lowered her voice. "We have to calm down and not make any rash decisions. I mean let's think about it."

"I have!" Leonard protested. "I wanna be a hero!"

"Now that's a good mindset to have in this situation!" A sudden voice spoke up, startling Leonard and causing spin on his heels so quickly that he fell down right on his butt. He would've cried out if he hadn't been looking at literally the strangest thing he had ever seen.

In the air, was a floating head. However, it was strangely shaped with batons mouse ears and two small black beady eyes. Underneath the eyes was a small nose along with a mouth that spilt its entire pear-shaped head in two. It was made out of something that didn't look like skin, colored a dark brown, aside from where the cheeks on a normal human head would be, which was a light shade of pink. On the bottom of the floating head, where one would assume there to be blood and guts, was just a small piece of cloth hanging there uselessly. "Hey." It's mouth opened up to greet them, revealing numerous sharp canines within.

"What the hell?" Dave stared, unable to take his eyes off of the strange creature.

"That's not a zombie..." Shawn said weakly, backing way.

"No duh," the... _thing_ said, before looking them over. It whistled. "Rough cast I've got, huh? Oh well."

"It talks!" Sky cried.

"And it's floating..." Scarlett narrowed her eyes. "How's it doing that?"

"What do you mean by 'it'?!" the creature grumbled, annoyed by the label it had been given. "If anything I'm a 'he'!"

"Are you perhaps that woman's underling?" Max asked, rubbing his hand together and grinning. "Because if that true… then that would make you my underling! Bwahahahaha!"

"What?!" The creature flew in close to Max startling the boy. "I'm nobody's underling! If anything you're my underling!"

"What?! Preposterous!" Max snarled. "I am the true EVIL master."

The creature grumbled something and flew back. "And here I thought I would watch over you idiots out of the kindness of my heart, so you'd better start being thankful!" As everyone fell silent, their eyes completely fixated on the strange creature in front of them, said creature floated higher into the air. "Now then… Does anyone have any questions?"

Everyone exchanged a look, before Dave raised his hand. "I do."

Amy copied him. "Me too.'

Soon the entire beach was was filled with raised hands and everybody shouting questions at the same time, their voices eventually becoming a blended mass of noise.

"What are you?"

"Are you a stuffed animal?"

"Where's the giant robot?"

"Are we fighting aliens?"

"Where did that robot come from?"

"The power source. Where can I get it?"

"Is the robot secretly EVIL?!"

As he continued to get bombarded by questions, the creature eventually shouted, "Shut up!" much to everyone's surprise. "You do realize it's polite to ask for someone's name first, you assholes?! I swear none of you have any manners at all…"

"Fine." Leonard figured he would be the one who asked. "What's your name? I'm sure it's something spiritual or magical-"

"Beetle," the creature interrupted. "My name is Beetle."

Leonard fell silent for a few seconds. "Or something like that," he mumbled.

Scarlett raised a brow. "That's a strange name."

"Well, it's mine," the creature, now dubbed Beetle, said.

A couple of chuckles were heard before Jasmine raised her hand. "Umm.. Is it possible yo withdraw from these battles?" She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "I mean we're already trying to win the money, so…"

"Nope." Beetle said simply, before floating higher into the air and father away from them. "You signed the contract after all."

They all disappeared.

Xxx

Being teleported was something that made Leonard feel sick, despite his excitement about the idea. Soon he would have to ask, whoever had casted the spell, about how to do it himself. It would definitely come in handy in the challenges.

"Beetle," Scarlett said carefully. "Where are we?"

"Where do you think?" Beetle asked her. "We're inside the cockpit. I brought everyone inside."

"Not everyone," Dave pointed out. "Beardo's not here."

"Eh." Beetle rolled himself in the air. "I'll bring him by later and explain it to him."

"But where's the robot?" Sky questioned.

"Underneath the sea," Beetle responded. "Though I can move it and hide it somewhere else if I wanted to." He turned to the center of the room. "Anyways, the magazine has been loaded!"

Right after he said those six words, chairs began to appear one by one around the center of the room, eventually forming a small circle made up of fourteen chairs. "Whoa…" Leonard gaped, his mouth wide open. "What incredible magic…"

Beetle floated to the center of the room. "Well? I'm sure these should bring back memories for the each of you, right?"

Everyone separated finding their own chairs amidst the others. Leonard was able to find his immediately; it was a limited edition plastic throne seat that was designed to look like the throne that a wizard would sit on. It was made off plastic of course but designed to look like it was made out of wood.

Leonard looked up from his seat to watch the others find theirs. Dave, Jasmine, and Shawn found theirs just as fast as he had. Dave had a rather simple oak wood chair, with think legs that connected to one another and with no armrests. Jasmine had a chair similar to Dave's, except the legs weren't connected and the back rest and cushion was made out of straw. Shawn had a ragged sofa recliner that was colored a dark green and had various holes and duct tape covering.

"I wonder if it has my chips," he said, digging around in the cup holder of one of the armrests.

Rodney was looking down on his seat with a sigh as it was just a simple wooden stool. Ella, in contrast, that looked fancy and fake at the same time. Her seat also looked something like a throne, except with pink wood for the frame and a pink seat cushion, with curved armrests giving it a more regal look. Next to her was Topher with a black leather office chair with plastic armrests and wheels at the bottom.

Sky and Sugar seemed to be having some trouble as their seats were extremely similar. Both were folding chairs. Sky's had a silver frame with a blue backrest and seat, with her name printed on the back. Sugar's, on the other hand, was a standard one made fully from steel and no embellishments on it. Sugar was giving Ella a glare as she took her place next to her chair.

Max and Scarlett were the next to take their places. Max had a small swivel seat that had a fabric cushion and backrest along with armrests that was fully colored black. Scarlett's was nearly identical to Max's except it didn't have any armrests and it was colored grey.

Amy and Samey were the last ones to find there seats. Their's were exactly alike, with a cherry wood frame and legs and pink seat. However one of them, was a little more worn-down and dirty compared to the other which was in pristine condition.

"You take that one," Amy said, pointing to the more shabby one and placing her hands on the pristine one. "It suits you."

Samey sighed and took her place. "Who's is that?" she asked, pointing to another grey leather office chair with pair of headphones plugged into the side and a small desk with a CD player attached to the armrest.

"Idiot," Amy spat. "Who do you think it belongs to?"

Leonard, honestly not knowing who if actually belonged to, did a headcount. He was halfway through counted before realizing that Beardo wasn't there with them. _Oops_.

Glancing around that had gathered he took note of the order everyone was in. Starting from Beardo, it was him, Amy, Rodney, Samey, Ella, Topher, Dave, Scarlett, Max, Jasmine, Sugar, Sky and Shawn, going from the right of Beardo's chair. Personally, Leonard had no idea what this order meant.

Suddenly, the circle of chairs began to spin around like a carousel, making Leonard and the others take a cautionary step away from them. "What's going on?!" Ella cried.

An image appeared on the floor, right in the middle of the circle of chairs, a line drawing of a tall humanoid figure, with arms and legs that had blunt ends and seemed especially bulky in the chest and waist area. The drawing stayed relatively in the middle of the circle, except for the head which extended into the from the of the arrangement.

Eventually, the spinning began to slow down and stop, ending with Leonard's seat eventually standing right on top of the head of the figure.

" _Leonard…_ "

Leonard looked up and glanced around the cockpit. "Did someone call me?" he asked everyone, frowning when they all just gave him a strange look.

Beetle, however, seemed to regard him with a little more interest. "So it's you, huh?" When Leonard looked at Beetle strangely, the strange creature that had names himself their guide grinned. "You heard the voice, didn't you?"

"What does that mean?" Leonard asked, as everyone to turned to look at him with a wide variety of emotions.

Beetle's grin grew a little wider. "It means that you're our pilot."

He blinked. "It does?" He stayed silent for about a second, before closed his eyes and grinned. "Yessss…" he whispered, bringing his fist up in celebration.

Xxx

To say that the next challenge went miles better for the Maskwaks would be lying. In fact, it probably couldn't have gone worst for them.

"You're saying that we lost because I didn't _believe_ in you!?" Dave screamed at Leonard, his eyes twitching. "Seriously?! I got covered in grease just for you to lose!?"

"Y-Yes!" Leonard said back, faltering a bit at his words. "Maybe if you had we would have won!" He folded his arms and looked away in silent defiance.

After Leonard had been chosen as the pilot, something that Dave was staunchly against, Beetle had transported them back to the island just in time for the next challenge. And what a challenge it was. It had seemed neck and neck to Leonard until the end, when _Dave_ had refused to believe in him.

"I swear I'm going to kill you!" seethed Dave. He began to reach for Leonard, just before Sky got in between them.

"Okay… okay…" Sky said, pushing Dave back from Leonard. "How about we all just go look for some food?" she suggested, eyeing the Kinosewaks bag of fast food they had gotten as a prize. "We'll discuss who's fault it is later."

"I'll go with Sugar," Ella offered, raising her hand.

"Eew!" Sugar spat into the ground. "As if! I'd rather go by myself!" She left the huddle, her hands clenched at her sides.

Ella's ever-present smile faltered for a bit. "All right then." She shrugged. "I guess I'll do the same then." Cheerfully she waved at the others and walked away, humming a small tune.

"No singing!" Chris screamed, a ways away.

"I'll take Dave," Sky told Shawn and Leonard, as she began to drag the germaphobe away, as he stared daggers at Leonard. "You two just look for some sort of shelter if you can."

Leonard watched them leave, before he sat with with a huff. Shawn gave him a look. "Seriously, what the hell?" he told the LARPer. "You had one job. All you had to do was try and climb it." He huffed. "If this was a zombie apocalypse, then you'd be next to useless."

"It's because Dave didn't believe," Leonard told him stubbornly.

"As if!" Shawn told him with an eyebrow raised. "You know as well as I do that you're just pretending! And you've got to stop it, man."

Leonard snorted. "Stop what?"

Shawn waved his arms at him. "You know! This whole… roleplaying thing! I mean what's the point? We're in a competition for a million dollars! _Why_ would you even bother?"

Leonard struggled to find an answer for a minute, before groaning. "I just thought... you know..."

"I know what?" Shawn frowned.

He sighed and began to pick at his "wizard" cloak. "My dad and I made this together when I was a kid," Leonard revealed, in a somber tone. "He was the one who introduced me to LARPing. We used to do it together all the time. We even went to Comic-Con."

"Oh," Shawn said, in a small voice. "What happened to him?"

"He's still alive," Leonard replied, missing Shawn's sigh of relief and twiddling his thumbs. "It's just that he's been busy with work and he can't do these things anymore. My dad used to take part in all of our roleplaying. But now he's just too busy." Leonard began to ramble on and on, unable to find a true breaking point. "So I thought if I came on the show and showed him how much fun it was to him then we would do it together again…"

Leonard paused and looked at Shawn noticing that he was hesitating. "Listen," Shawn. "Was coming onto a reality TV show really the best idea to go around this."

Leonard sighed. "No…"

"Right." Shawn nodded. "And trust me… I think auditioning for a reality TV show is probably the worst way to get noticed." He clenched his fist as he said these words.

"But…" Leonard perked up. "Now that, I'm piloting this robot, I'll be a hero! Saving the world will make me famous!"

Shawn frowned. "But I thought we weren't telling anyone about this," he pointed out, a hint of desperation in his voice.

"That's right," Leonard insisted. "But once we tell everyone about how we saved the world from aliens, afterwards, we'll become heroes!"

Shawn smiled, despite himself. "I think for now we've got to worry about finding some food and elimination ceremony."

Leonard's eyes widened. "Food, huh?" he muttered. "I don't think that my food gathering spell will work unless I have the petal from the flower of sine."

"Actually…" Shawn started. "I have a pretty good idea for a shelter for you guys."

Xxx

"Which leaves Ella the Songbird and Leonard the Wizard," Chris said, turning to the two while Chef stood next to him holding a tray of marshmallows. "And the irritating oddball going home tonight is…" He grinned deviously at his two victims, holding up a singular marshmallow, letting the moment draw out and giving time to get the contestants reactions, before tossing it to Ella. "Leonard. Yeah, pack your potions. You're going flying!"

"Me!" Leonard cried, his eyes wide.

Sugar burst into the scene faking a dramatic pose. "Noo…!" she cried before pretending to faint, by collapsing into the ground in front of Leonard.

Leonard began to cry out some gibberish about a time reversal spell, before Chef grabbed his arm and dragged him into the cannon. However he paused for a second to stare at a strange green tattoo on the side of Leonard's right arm of the same image that was inside the cockpit. "What's this?" he asked the boy.

Leonard glanced down. "No idea."

"Nothing?" Chris said, with a hint of sarcasm, seemingly not hearing Chef nor Leonard. "So weird…"

"Fireball! Lightning Bolt!" Leonard shouted momentarily forgetting the strange tattoo.

The scene transitioned to the where the cannon was, with Leonard already inside it. "Aw, nuts!" he said, realizing his predicament.

"Check this out Chef!" Chris told his good buddy, bringing out that red button from the first elimination. "I'm going to show you a little magic trick of my own. Watch…" Chris voice died and he turned to look out into the ocean. "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!"

Startled, the rest of the Maskwaks looked into sea, only to find a something materializing out of thin air out in the distant sea. The breath catching in their throats they realized exactly what was it was.

"See I told you I was right!" Chef yelled at Chris.

"RUN FOR YOUR FUCKING LIVES!" Chris _bolted_ away from the cannon, running faster than any of them present had ever seen before.

"You kids!" Chef began to holler at the contestants. "You'd better get inside too-!" He stopped suddenly, finding that there was no one else with him.

Xxx

They all found themselves in the cockpit once again, with Beetle floating above them. "Hurry! Get in your seats!" he said without a hint of urgency. "The enemy's almost finished spawning!"

Everyone scrambled into their seats at his words with Leonard taking the head. The view from the cockpit opened up, revealing the water surrounding them. Leonard noticed that Beardo was with them this time, giving the cockpit a wary look. "Remember it moves from your thoughts," Beetle reminded Leonard.

Leonard nodded and was about to try, when a sudden thought occurred to him. "Wait. Does this robot have a name?"

Beetle shook his head. "A name? No."

"Ooh!" Ella raised her hand jumping slightly into the air. "Can we give it one?"

"Do whatever you want."

"Ummm..." Dave fidgeted. "What about the enemy?"

"We should call it Wizard!" Sugar suggested. "Or GreasePig!"

"No," Sky told her flatly.

"Let's name it Max's Evil Abomination!" Max suggested. "Bwahahaha!"

As Max continued to laugh Jasmine looked up, thoughtful. "Maybe something involving the Earth. We are saving it after all."

That gave Leonard an idea. "Well since we're fighting for Earth, let's call it The Earth!" He paused another idea hitting him. "Zearth!"

"That sounds stupid," Dave said.

"Let's shut up for now," Beetle told them. "The enemy's fast approaching."

Leonard ignored Dave and Beetle, interning turning to stare out into the water. "Zearth!" he shouted. "Move out!"

Once he said those words Zearth began to creak noisily, straining to get up from underneath the water. It broke the water's surface, lifting itself to a standing position, staring down at the enemy.

 _Clank… Clank…_

Amy frowned as they witnessed the enemy robot. "It's kinda of different from the last one, isn't it?"

It was true. This robot was definitely more humanoid when compared to the last one. If Leonard had to describe it as something, he would definitely call it "fat." It had a giant body that was basically a giant sphere, along with spindly legs and a tiny square head, with seven light glowing underneath. Its arms were probably the most impressive thing about the robot, both of them in the shop of a rectangular prism, with the ends hallowed out for some reason.

Leonard was about to make Zearth move forward when he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. "Beetle," he said carefully. "What are those bright lights on the island?"

Beetle followed Leonard's gaze. "Those things?"

Rodney glanced behind him. "I don't see anything."

"I'm not surprised," Beetle smirked. "Only the pilot can see them after all. The bright lights you see down there are the souls of the humans down there."

Xxx

"Dammit, Chris!" Chef growled, reaching for the host's shirt in order to drag him back from the fight that Chef was expecting to occur at any moment. "What do you think you're doing?!"

Chris struggled to get out of Chef's grip. "Why do you think?" His face almost looked hungry. "We've got to get footage of this! We could be famous!"

"You wanted to run away just a few seconds ago!" Chef snorted. "Besides what about the kids?!" Despite how much fun he had inflicting pain on the contestants, he didn't want them to _die_.

 _Clank... Clank..._

Chris ignored him, favoring to glare at the interns who were huddled in a group near them. "All of you. Grab one of the cameramen and bring him here!"

The interns looked at each other for a moment, with the girl opening her mouth. "No!" Chris said making her go quiet. "The camera. Now."

She hesitated, before nodding and running off with the other two interns following close behind.

Chef let go of Chris and gave Daniel a look. Daniel understood the message immediately and ran off close behind the interns. "What are you planning?" Chef asked Chris, calmly.

Chris blinked. "Um... What do you think?" He stared at the two giant robots in a mixture of awe and fear. "If I- _we_ become to people to document this then we'll be famous!" He paused. "Well even more famous."

Chef was about to tell him what a honest to GOD stupid plan that was, when he noticed one of the robot's chests beginning to glow blue. He had taken note of the fact that the one that had materialized out of thin air was completely new, while the one that had risen out of the water was the same one that had appeared and defeated spider yesterday.

And he knew exactly what the blue glow meant.

Acting fast he pushed Chris down into the ground using his arms to shield himself and the man. Chris of course struggled, but Chef held onto him tightly praying that the robot wasn't aiming for them.

It seemed as though Chef's prayers were answered as the lasers flew right into the other robot. However they simply reflected off to the side hitting a cliff on the island, instantly vaporizing it.

"What the fuck are these things?!" Chef muttered to himself, watching the machinery inside speak.

Xxx

"Oops." Leonard chuckled nervously.

"Oops?" Dave repeated, incredously. "You demolished a part of the island!"

 _Clank... Clank... Clank..._

"I could've been worse," Rodney pointed out. "He could've destroyed the entire island."

Dave opened his mouth to say something, but Jasmine cut him off. "Better cut the argument short, boys," she said, gesturing to their enemy. "It's seems like he's starting to do something."

Leonard tensed as he watched his enemy slowly light it's right arm and point it directly at Zearth. A small blue light began to glow inside the arm, growing stronger by the second.

"Move!" Scarlett suddenly said, startling Leonard. He immediately complied, moving out of the way as fast as he could. However he was not fast enough, as a thick blue beam of light ripped through the air landing a direct hit on Zearth's arm.

Leonard could only watch in silent shock, as Zearth's left arm fell to the sea below, the beam of light burning straight through Zearth's armor, melting the arm off. This didn't last long for him, as he turned to stare at his enemy with a new determination. "I'm going to fire my lasers again."

His announcement had several responses.

"Did you not see what happened last time?!" Amy yelled at him.

"You're gonna get us killed!" Dave yelled, nearly reaching his limit. "I knew it was a good idea to vote you off!"

Leonard winced, but remained steadfast in his decision. Noticing that his enemy was repeating the same process, except with his right arm this time, he was ready. Quickly sidestepping the beam, he let it fly past them and out into the open sea.

"I have a better idea," Scarlett announced, adjusting her glasses. "Instead of standing here like idiots, we could charge it and possibly stab it through with Zearth's arm."

"No way!" protested Leonard. "I'm a wizard. I don't have a decent enough attack! Magic is the only way to defeat it for me!"

"Leonard!" Shawn said sharply, making him flinch. "You've got to stop it with this wizard bullshit. Now is not the time!"

"But-" Leonard tried to argue back, before falling back at the glare of Shawn.

Scarlett glanced up at the floating Beetle. "It takes exactly 30 seconds for that robot to charge itself up and fire. Do you think that we could make it before then, Beetle?"

Beetle nodded. "It depends on what Leonard wants to do though," he said, turning to stare at the pretend wizard.

Time seemed to slow down, as everyone turned to face Leonard. He inched back into his chair his mind unwillingly going back to a past memory from his childhood.

 _"Dad! Dad!" A young Leonard raced into his house's dining table, screeching in front of his father, who was reading a newspaper. Leonard was wearing his wizard cloak, which hung loosely at his feet. "Look what I found in the attic! Isn't this yours?!"_

 _Leonard's father blinked and looked around fearfully for a second, before whispering, "It is. Just don't tell your mom."_

 _"Okay!" With absolutely no care in the world, Leonard began to flick his "wand" around muttering various things, before holding it up in front of his face. "With this I'll finally be a hero!"_

 _His dad chuckled. "You can be a hero without that you know."_

 _Leonard frowned, looking confused. "I can?" he asked._

 _His dad nodded, giving him a great big grin. "Of course! You can be a hero just by being Leonard."_

Coming back to reality, Leonard noticed that the enemy robot had started to charge its beam again, with it pointed straight at him. "Okay," he said, his voice hoarse. "I'll do it."

Scarlett nodded. "Dodge this next one," she instructed. "Then run at it with full force and strike it down." She shrugged. "Simple."

 _Clank... Clank..._

"Right." Leonard glared at his enemy. "Zearth, dodge!"

Zearth sidestepped to the left as the next beam passed by mere inches away from them.

"Zearth, charge!"

Their robot began its running start towards its enemy, moving slowly at first, before slowly building up speed. Leonard gritted his teeth, as he felt his head begin to vibrate. "This is harder then it looks," he muttered, before making Zearth pull back its remaining arm. The enemy attempted to backpedal but it had realized their intentions too late and was too slow to make any sort of decent distance.

"Pierce!" Leonard shouted, brining Zearth arm crashing into their enemy, piercing its chest. They paused for a few seconds, only supported by the arm that pierced its chest. Slowly it slid out with a sickening grind and fell into the ocean with a splash. In a panic, Leonard realized he hadn't found the weak point yet and began to desperately pound on the remaining robot with Zearth's feet. "Where's the weak point?" he shouted in a panic, remembering Toriel's warning about regeneration.

He only stopped when Beetle spoke up. "It's over. You got it."

As the lights from the enemy robot faded away, Leonard let out a sigh of relief. It's was utter silence until Shawn spoke up. "Nice job, dude!" he congratulated.

After those words, everyone began to congratulate him and praise him along with Scarlett. Leonard simply said, "Thank you," as nearly all the adrenaline he had built up during that fight slowly vanished. "Dad I hope you find out about this," he muttered.

"All right!" Beetle said. "Nice job, kiddos. I'll just teleport you back to where you were now!" Without even bothering to here their response he did just that.

Xxx

Chris glanced around, after seeing the two robots clash and both of them completely disappear. "Dammit where are those interns?!"

"They probably just ran away," Chef told him bluntly. "They wouldn't want to risk their lives for something like these."

"Well just dock their pay then," Chris said dismissively, before noticing something in the distance. "Hey look. The kids are over there."

Chef glanced over to where Chris was looking, noticing that he was indeed right. The contestants were standing right where he had left them a moment. Gritting his teeth, he stomped over to them. "Where were you?"

Shawn chuckled nervously. "Uh... We hid in a... tree?"

Chef was about to tell them off, but Chris came by noticing that Leonard was still in the cannon. With a groan, he pressed his red button launching the poor boy into the air. "Now that's done with," he muttered.

The rest of the campers were, needless to say, very shocked. "Why would you do that?" Sugar said angrily. "That wizard is a hero!"

"Yeah!" Dave said, equally as forceful much to Chef's surprise. "Even I've got to admit that he did good!"

"Hey hey hey." Chris raised his arms. "He was voted off. Besides who cares-?" He paused suddenly noticing that his phone was ringing. Flipping it open, he said, "Hello?" followed by, "Yeah I just launched him. What about it?"

He paused waiting for the response, that made the Maskwak's blood run cold. "What do you mean he's dead?"

* * *

 **Man, this story is just too much FUN to write.**

 **Reviews and constructive criticism is GREATLY appreciated.**


	3. Sugar

Chapter 3: Sugar

This story, while having an abundance of OCs, will stay focused on the Pahkitew Island characters, including Chris and Chef. I just felt as though I should state that here.

* * *

The wizard's death hadn't really affected Sugar that much. She figured that since he was one he could always revive himself or something like that later on.

What really affected her was the fact that they had put the show on hiatus for now. It had been her one chance at becoming truly famous, outside of her child beauty pageant wins. Instead of killing it on camera and winning the hearts of people in America, she was stuck in an cold grey interrogation room with a rather handsome police officer, three days after Leonard's death.

"So... Sugar," the officer said, his eyes flicking to her profile for a second. "How would you describe your relationship with Leonard?"

"He was a wizard!" Sugar replied, honestly. "I don't know why my teammates voted him off." Lowering her voice to a whisper she said, "We should've voted off the varmint Ella."

"Right..." The officer hesitated. "And the giant robot?"

The island's cameras had managed to capture some of their fights against the enemy, but it was too grainy and of a low-quality to actually be used as evidence. They mostly chalked it up to Chris having some fun with special effects and using it as a deterrent against Leonard's death.

Sugar shook her head. "Never saw it," she lied smoothly.

The officer sighed. "Right." He nodded. "You may go."

She nodded, smiling despite the situation, before getting out of her seat and leaving the room, passing Dave, who was looking extremely nervous, along the way. Heading down the long corridor that led to the front desk, she stopped in front of the first room looking through a small window where she could see Chris sweating as he was asked numerous questions by his interrogator.

Shrugging, she left them joining the group of contestants huddled near the front doors. "Did you tell them?" Shawn asked, in a low voice.

She shook her head in response.

"I don't like this," Samey said, her voice quivering. "We should tell someone."

"It's a bad idea," Shawn insisted. "Trust me."

"It's not like it was our fault to begin with," Jasmine pointed out. "Chris was the one who shot him out of that cannon."

Sugar nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Besides the wizard will be fine. He's a wizard after all!"

Everyone exchanged a look that made Sugar internally frown. What had she said?

Footsteps coming from behind her, turned her attention away from them and instead towards the number of people walking towards. She easily recognized Chris and Chef who were flanked by two officers, Leonard's parents along with the two lawyers. Dave came up from the rear, looking rather tense. They stopped in front of the contestants, with no words spoken as Dave took his place behind Jasmine.

"Umm..." Rodney was the first one to break the awkward silence. "So what's going to happen to the show?"

Chris's lawyer, a brown haired man with glasses names Adams, pursued his lips. "Leonard's family is suing Chris," he said, sending a glare towards the father. " _Despite_ the contract the states we aren't liable for any damages he receives during challenges. _Including_ death."

The prosecutor, a younger woman with long dark black hair, glared daggers at her opposition. "Yes, but only during challenges," she pointed out, stiffly. "The cannon that killed the boy wasn't part of any elimination and it was Chris who shot him out of it. It is only natural that my client would pursue charges."

Adams sighed. "In any case, the court case will take place much later in the future. So let us save the arguing until then."

"What do you mean by that?" Leonard's father asked, a dangerous edge to his tone.

Adams sighed, once again. "It just will," he said firmly, tired of explaining himself. "This isn't some fake TV show or video game where it'll take minutes to process."

"How long?" Leonard's father asked.

"About a week."

He growled. "We're having the funeral in another four days. I would like justice before then."

"May I remind you that I still haven't received the body's autopsy," Adams countered, dryly. "Nor have I been able to actually see the body?"

Leonard's father gritted his teeth, before giving up and looking at the remaining thirteen contestants. Digging around in his pocket, he produced several cards and handed one to each of them. "You're all welcome to come to his funeral. I'm sure he'll be happy to see some of the friends he last saw be there." He turned around and guided his somber wife out of the door with their lawyer following, missing Dave and Sky's wince.

 _Ha!_ Sugar thought. _Serves them right._

Adams sighed once again his thin gaze locking onto the contestants. "If you ever need a lawyer," he offered, holding out several business cards in his hand. "Just call my law firm. We mostly focus on show related things, but I'd be happy to help." He winked.

Both Jasmine and Rodney took a card, while everyone else refused politely.

He flicked the remaining cards into his sleeve. "Good day," he said, walking out of the police station. Chris walked by them, without a thought while Chef have them all a look of pity, before leaving.

It wasn't until they all left, when Sky spoke up. "Dammit!" She muttered kicking the air. "I really needed the money."

"Hoe can you say that?" Ella scolded sternly. "Someone died!"

Sky flinched, opening her mouth to say something, but Dave beat her to the punch. "Hey!" he protested. "We all wanted to win the money! It's not her fault!"

Shawn awkwardly rubbed his neck. "Well, we were the ones who voted him off."

Sugar felt as though she had to correct him. "Y'all were the ones who voted him off," she said with a triumphant smile. "I wasn't stupid enough to vote for him. You wait till he comes back from the dead as a zombie!"

"Zombie?!" Shawn shrieked, looking around wildly.

"No one turning into a zombie!" Jasmine consoled, sharply, before biting her lip. "Besides, I'm more worried about Zearth. What do we do with it?"

Beardo frowned. "What do you mean?"

"We're in way over our heads," Jasmine explained.

Topher shrugged. "I see nothing wrong with it," he said. "Besides its not like Zearth ruined my chances at fame." He scowled at a nearby officer.

"We're not thinking of this properly," Scarlett pointed. "The government _will_ find us eventually and when they do, I'm sure they'll treat us as the enemies."

"Good." Max sniggered. "That's exactly what I want."

Sugar didn't understand and honestly didn't really care. Ruffling her hair, she said, "You people are overreacting! Who cares if the big boys find us?"

Scarlett spared her a glance. "Do you seriously not understand the destructive capabilities of that machine?" she asked, with a hint of anger.

Sugar made a face. "Detrucktive caterpillars?" She shook her head. "No idea what you mean. I didn't see any caterpillars."

Scarlett opened her mouth to retort, but paused when she saw Sky shaking her head. Scowling, she dropped the issue and closed her mouth.

Sugar wasn't quite finished, however. "Anyway what are we gonna do with this?" She held up the invitation they had received from Leonard's dad.

Dave frowned. "We're going right?"

"Of course we are!" protested Ella, before she smiled sweetly. "I'm sure Leonard would like it if we were there." Her smile seemed to waver a bit as she said her next lines "He died a hero after all."

Xxx

Four days had passed, before the day of the funeral, before Sugar realized she had no idea what to wear. "Ma!" she screamed, walking into her large living room, holding up two dresses, one was bright pink and the other blue and gold. "What do you think I should wear to the wizard's funeral?!"

Her mother, a gargantuan woman sitting on the couch, blinked at her question. "They both look good, but..." She hesitated.

"But what?" Sugar raised a brow.

Her mother shook her head. "I think silver would be a better color on you!"

Sugar beamed, immediately running back into her room, and pulling her dress out of her closet and putting it on. Another three hours later, she was left on the sidewalk in front of the church closest to Leonard's house. Luckily, their hometowns were rather close to each when compared to the rest of the cast, so she didn't have to stay in a hotel like the rest of her competitors.

Knocking on the door, she waited a few seconds before the door opened revealing a young man in a black suit. He took in her appearance, staring at her silver dress with confused eyes. "Yes?" he asked, rather hesitantly.

"I'm here for the wizard's party!" she said with a goofy smile on her face.

The man stared at her. "But the dress code...?"

Sugar was about to say something else, when she spotted the other contestants inside the house. Without a second thought, she pushed past the man and headed towards them. "Hiya, guys!" she greeted cheerfully, eliciting many strange looks in her direction.

Dave choked on his drink when he saw her. "What are you wearing?!" he cried, nearly spilling his own drink onto his crisp, dark suit.

Sugar ignored his question and instead pointed to the drink in his hand. "Is that punch?" she asked excitedly.

Dave shied the cup away from her, holding it protectively in his hands. "It's water," he answered.

"Um… You didn't answer Dave's question," Sky, who was in a plain black dress herself, pointed out, with an arched eyebrow. "Why are you wearing that? Don't you know what this it?"

Sugar rolled her eyes, and looked over at the others. They were all wearing plain black, too, even Ella looking extremely at odds with her princess-like hair. "I thought black was too plain for someone like me! Besides this is a party, right?"

Everyone exchanged a look of silence, something that confused Sugar. What had she done wrong?

Ella placed a hand on her shoulder, causing Sugar to flinch and push it away. Looking a bit hurt, she said, "This is a serious matter Sugar," she explained with a patient smile. "It seems… impolite to show up like you did."

"Aw shucks!" Sugar caused her to back away with a wave of her hand. "I'm polite. Back at home, I won the beauty pageant for being polite!" A couple more people turned to stare at the group. "Besides! The wizard would've been fine with it!" she added, confidently.

Everyone seemed to breath a collective sigh, something that Sugar didn't really understand. Maybe they were just jealous.

The "party," continued as is, the moody and downright depressing atmosphere not really bothering Sugar. Instead, she opted to be ever cheerful, annoying the various guests and such, with no discretion.

Soon enough, words of sincerity about Leonard had begun to be spoken with Leonard's father taking the stand first. "I was to one who introduced Leonard to LARPing," he said, his face betraying a small smile. "I used to cart all of his small friends and bring them to the nearby events. I even dressed up with them and played their games. Though, I guess work got in the way and I haven't been able to have fun with him recently. I just wish… that I could've spent some more time with him before this had happened…" He went silent, taking a long look at his wife, who's face was rigid with grief.

"Wooooooh!" Sugar whooped, breaking the thick silence, abruptly. "Yeah! I wanna go next!"

Leonard's father blinked. "Uh, sure?"'he moved to the side as Sugar ran up to the stand with clear glee.

"Leonard was wizard!" she declared suddenly, startling most of the guests. In the back, she could see Dave facepalm as the rest of the cast stared at her in shock. "An amazing wizard," she continued, with no signs of stopping. "If it weren't for the rest of our stupid _team_ ," she emphasized the word, causing murmurs to erupt among the crowd. "Then he would still be alive! We wouldn't have to waste a revival spell on him."

" _Sugar..._ "

As a stunned silence fell upon he crowd, Sugar tilted her head and tapped the microphone. "Um...," she said, oblivious to the strange looks everyone were giving her. "Did someone call my name?" When no one answered she was about to ask again, when the priest tapped her shoulder.

"Excuse me, young lady." The priest gave her a strange look. "Could you please step off the podium?"

Sugar shrugged. "Sure!" She backed away, a huge grin still on her face.

"Thank you." The priest looked away, but did a double take. "Young lady. You have something on your neck." He tapped the right side of his neck. "Right here."

Sugar shrugged, and tapped her neck. "Do you know where the bathroom is?" she asked.

"In the back," he replied, before turning back to the guests.

Feeling as though she had said exactly what she had wanted to say, she headed towards the bathroom, ignoring some of the angry looks that were being sent her way.

Pushing open the flap that they called a door to the women's bathroom, she was quite surprised to find it completely empty. Feeling a bit more pleased with this fact she headed for the stall all the way at the very end, before pausing in front of the mirror because something caught her eye..

She leaned in closer and left her head up in order to get a better look at the strange line drawing that had appeared on her neck. The line drawing itself looked a little like a scorpion, but to be honest she had never seen one before. She didn't have the picture prior to coming to the party.

"Congratulations," a dry voice spoke up, causing her to jump a foot into the the air. Whirling around, she found Beetle hovering above her and looked down with a small gleam in his beady eyes. "You're the new pilot."

It took a moment for his words to register to Sugar. "Wait." She pointed to herself. "Me?"

Beetle nodded.

Sugar beamed. "You-you think I could show it off?" she asked.

Beetle blinked. "Sure. Any reason why?"

"There's going to be a beauty pageant in the city a week from now," Sugar revealed rather easily. "If I show the judges Zearth, then they've got to let me win, right?!" She smiled triumphantly at Beetle.

"Sure," Beetle repeated. "Do whatever you want. I don't care."

"Really?" Sugar frowned. She hadn't expected it to be that easy. "I thought it was supposed a secret."

"That's was something you idiot bastards decided on." Beetle rolled his eyes. "The pilot decides what to do with the robot. I'm only here as a guide." He paused thinking of an analogy. "Basically think of me as Charon guiding you down the river Styx."

Xxx

Adams rubbed the sleep out of his eyes with one hand, using the other to grip the five or so papers in his hand. Rubbing his thumb across one of the edges, he glared at Chris, who was sitting directly across from him, inside his dimly lit office. "How do you expect me to depend you with something as flimsy as this?" He waved the papers around to illustrate his point.

"I told you what I could," Chris said weakly. "We double checked everything. There's no way this would've happened. It's was perfect!"

"Well it wasn't perfect enough," Adams retorted immediately. "Mr. McLean when I agreed to take your case I did not even _think_ that it would be this hopeless."

"Sorry," Chris said weakly.

"Your reputation precedes you," Adams drawled.

"I'm morally straight!" The host protested.

"All-Stars."

"Hey!" Chef stood up from the corner where he had been. "Lay off him. He's told you all that he knows!" He growled, clenching his teeth together.

Adams rolled his eyes, unimpressed by the display. "Tell that to the family that just lost their son and is attempting to sue him." He glanced at the clock. "Speaking of which..."

Chef, caught off guard by the sudden attitude change, frowned. "What?"

Adams threw on a jacket. "Follow me in your car. We're heading to the morgue."

Chris had copied the frown from Chef. "A morgue?"

Ten minutes later, the three of them found themselves standing in front of a small gray building with not windows anywhere to be seen. Adams strode right in, with Chris and Chef following close behind, looking wary.

A man in a white pristine lab coat sat at the front desk, snoring and sound asleep, until Adams clapped his hands together, loudly. The man sat up quickly, his hands and head flailing wildly, before his eyes focused on his three guests. Giving them a strangely chipper smile, he asked, "How may I help you? Lost a loved one? Collecting a body? _Killing_ someone?"

As Chris let out a squeak of fear, Adams shook his head. "None of those," he replied, with a straight face. "We're here to inspect one."

"Oh?" The man took out a pamphlet and began to flip through it. "Who is it?"

"Leonard."

The man froze for a second, before putting away the pamphlet. "I can tell you that without even looking it up since I was the one who examined it," he said happily. "Though the body is gone, I'm afraid. Is that alright?"

Adams nodded, which the man took as a sign to continue. "Leonard was killed on-!"

"We already know all that," Chef grunted. "We want to know how he died."

Oh." The man hesitated. "We don't know."

Adams raised a brow. "What do you mean by that?"

"I mean that we- _I_ have no idea how he could've gotten killed. Judging from what I saw of the body he died from a fall not from drowning."

"But he did fall," Chef pointed out. "Chris shot him out of a cannon."

The man shook his head. "He definitely wouldn't have died from that height. Several broken bones, like the ones we found, yes, but if he had died then it would've been from drowning." He fished out a paper from a drawer. "There wasn't any water in his lungs."

"So what does it mean?" Chris said impatiently.

The man rolled his eyes. "It means the boy died from something aside from drowning or falling. Something that I cannot pinpoint."

Xxx

About a week had passed since the disaster at Leonard's funeral. Luckily, she left quickly after finding out she was the next pilot, instead perfecting to prepare for her beauty pageant in the coming week.

It had been a while since she had participated in one. About 9 years, if she was remembering it correctly. She also had only a week to prepare but she was pretty sure she was ready. She had even picked out the perfect gown to wear!

And here she finally was, having already gone through the first three sections of the competition: makeup, gown, and swimsuit modeling. She already had a small feeling that she had aced all three given the looks the judges would always give her when she came out.

All that was left was the talent and question portion.

She walked out onto the wooden stage wearing a standard black gown that showed off her curves quite nicely (in her opinion), smiling widely and waving her hand slowly, as a polite applause rang throughout the auditorium. Her eyes gazed over to her cheering family that sat in the far corner, with her mother and little brother and sisters cheering the loudest.

Sugar's eyes soon moved to the trophy that sat on the table in front of the judges, her eyes sparkling when she laid them on the golden reward. The idea that she would get another one to add to her collection(of one), was already tempting as is, but if she could win this city pageant, then she would be able to attend the state level pageant and eventually the national pageant. And she planned to win them all.

One of the judges, an old man with a balding head, held up a couple of flash cards as Sugar took her place. She glanced back at the other girls, or rivals, who had gone before her. For some reason, they reminded her of Ella, causing her to grit her teeth unconsciously.

The judge cleared his throat. "Sugar," he started to say. "What do you think about global warming?"

"I think that global warming is bad and that the president should fix it!" she said smoothly, her grin not faltering.

The judge blinked. "And...?"

"And what?" Sugar's smile fell.

He sighed, exchanging a knowing look with the other judges. "Nothing," he replied. "Now what is your talent?"

Sugar hesitated. "Um... Well... You see..."

Suddenly, from the back of the auditorium, the doors opened loudly with two police officers on the other side. "This is an emergency evacuation!" the lead one called out. "Everyone please stay calm and exit in an orderly fashion."

Several moments of silence passed, before questions began to be thrown out at the officers.

"Is this a prank?!"

"What's going on?!"

"Shit, I left my cookies in the oven!"

"Pandas!"

The lead officer pursued his lips. "That's on a need to know basis," he said, just as his younger partner cried out, "There's giant monsters outside!"

Sugar perked up, as the lead police officer glared at his partner. "That's not important, right now!" he informed everyone. "Right now, all that matter is getting everyone to safety." He moved aside and held the door open, gesturing towards the exit.

Just before anyone could exit, Sugar held up her hands. "Wait!" she cried, causing everyone to stop and look her way. "Don't worry!" She grinned stupidly. "I can defeat the monsters."

Everyone stared at her as if she was crazy. "Young… lady," the police officer sighed. "I have no idea what you are talking about, but can you please let us do our job?"

"I still think we should just run," he partner muttered, practically quivering in his boots.

"No," Sugar insisted. "I can beat the monsters." She turned her gaze onto the three judges."This is my talent. That trophy is mine!" She gave the other girls a stare.

"Sugar!" Her mother, along with her brother, had come up to the front, completely out of breath, hanging her head down in order to intake air more easily. "What… ah… are you talking about?!" She looked up, only to find that Sugar had disappeared.

Xxx

Sugar felt her feet lightly touch the ground of the cockpit, as Beetle teleported her inside. Glancing around it, she found that the everyone else had already been teleported inside and were waiting for her in their seats, with the exception of Leonard's seat which stayed empty, as no one was willing to even touch it. "You're kidding me," Dave whined.

Beetle floated down from the ceiling and gave Sugar a look. "Well, whatcha waiting for?"

"Wait a gosh darn minute!" Sugar said angrily, pointing at a girl in Ella's seat. She had plain straight black hair and was wearing a simple cotton tee and faded jeans. "Who the heck is she?!"

The girl in question flinched. "I'm... I'm Ella?" she muttered, her voice quavering.

Sugar couldn't believe what she had just heard. "Really?" she said, doing a double take. Now that she looked more closely, the girl did remind her of Ella, except without the fancy dress.

Ella nodded, wordlessly.

Sugar would've double down in laughter if Beetle hadn't interrupted the conversation by saying, "It's coming."

Snapping her out any euphoria that she might have had, Sugar leapt into her plastic chair, much like the one the parents sat in, while watching the beauty pageant. The screens around them flickered on, showing them the view of Louisville, Kentucky, from the air. Out of the corner of her eye, Sugar could see the place where her beauty pageant was taking place. She could see the two police officers escorting everyone out and away, including her family and the trophy which the judges were carrying.

She gritted her teeth, unhappy that no one was staying to watch her. "I have to stop them," she muttered, as she began to force to move Zearth backwards, when she suddenly paused and looked to her left. "It's back?" she asked aloud.

Everyone followed her gaze, noticing that Zearth had somehow grown back the arm that it had lost in the previous fight. Rodney frowned. "How did that happen?" he asked Beetle.

Beetle rolled his eyes. "The machine regenerates itself over time," he drawled. "Wouldn't want you to go into another fight without any limbs right." He suddenly narrowed his eyes up. "Careful," he warned.

Sugar looked forward finally noticing her enemy. It was much like the first enemy that Toriel had faced; a four-legged mechanical beast with a large abdomen and small thin legs that barely seem to be holding itself up. Two appendages extended out from the front of the body, forming giant claws that looked large enough to grip Zearth. A long tail arched from behind the robot, reaching high into the air and ending in a sharp point. Fourteen lights glowed on a small "face" in the middle of the abdomen.

Sugar gulped as her hand went to her neck. It was... somewhat more scary to be in the driver's seat than just watching it.

Meanwhile the others finally noticed where they were. "Hey!" Jasmine shouted, grabbing the attention of Beetle. "Why are we here? I thought we would be near the island!"

Beetle floated around lazily. "That's where Sugar was," he droned. "The fight takes place where the pilot is at the moment. Since she was here, the fight takes place here."

"But there are people here," Sky protested. "We can't have a giant fight here!"

"It's okay." Sugar found herself speaking up, much to her surprise. "They had started evacuating people before Beetle teleported me inside."

Everyone stared at her as if she was crazy, but Beetle just looked pleased. "There. You see?" he said to Sky and Jasmine. "Everything will be fine. Now just sit yer asses on the seats and calm down." He narrowed his eyes at the mechanical beast in front of them. "The Scorpion is coming."

 _Clank... Clank..._

The Scorpion, as dubbed by Beetle, began to crawl forward, it's long tail arching back. Sugar, in contrast, walked backwards, heading towards the building where her family were still trying to evacuate from.

Scarlett turned her head towards her, with a strange look. "What are you doing?!" she asked, with an extremely calm expression.

Amy was less so. "Are you trying to get us killed?!" she cried, her face turning red.

Sugar blinked, unsure of what everyone is talking about. "I'm just trying to-Waugh!" she started to say before being interrupted by a force that threw her back in her chair. Scorpion had scuttled forward with a surprising speed and had used its claws to grip Zearth's legs. It then slammed its tail into Zearth's chest, making it lean backwards, on the verge of falling down.

Max gripped his chair. "We're falling!" he screamed, in an absolute panic.

"Uuuuugh," Beetle groaned. "Didn't Toriel tell you idiots? The cockpit's a floating construction. Yer safe as long as you stay inside!"

"I'm too young to die!" cried Topher, apparently not hearing Beetle.

"What about the people?!" Beardo shouted suddenly, grabbing everyone's attention, as held onto the armrest of his chair.

Beetle blinked. "Oh."

Sugar glanced down, where she could see the numerous buildings below them, as Zearth collapsed on several blocks of the city. Just before the head hit the ground, Sugar saw her mother holding the trophy from the beauty pageant and her family, along with some of the judges and contestants who were left behind, on the ground near the auditorium.

Right where Zearth was falling towards.

As if in slow-motion, Sugar saw everyone try and run away from their impending death except her mother, who just stood there silently staring up at the mech, clutching the small golden trophy as if it were a lifeline.

At the second before Zearth crushed her, Sugar thought she saw her smile.

 _Clank… Clank…_

Xxx

Sugar blinked, a haze appearing in her mind. She didn't understand what had just happened. Her mind was blank. She looked down at the rubble, seeing blood where she had seen her mother along with the small crushed trophy sitting ally on the blood puddle.

Something about that image enraged Sugar. It was her trophy. She was supposed to win that. It was hers. And now… She looked up unable to bear the sight of her destroyed trophy.

"Oh my gosh," Ella whispered, staring wide eyed at the small blood splatters that dotted the rubble around them. Sugar had already managed to get Zearth to sit up, so the fourteen teenagers had a perfect view of the destruction that they caused.

Both Max and Rodney were hyperventilating, while others were on the verge of throwing up. Sugar, for her part, ignored everyone else, instead focusing her attention on the enemy robot, which had backed off after pushing them down and was now circling around Zearth without moving in.

Sugar gritted her teeth. "Oh, now you made me angry!" she growled.

 _Clank… Clank…_

Zearth pushed itself up using its arms and into a standing position, before Sugar maneuvered it to face Scorpion. She began to move it towards the enemy not paying attention to where her robot stepped, as it crushed other buildings that had been untouched when they fell.

Scarlett looked behind them to see the line of destruction that Sugar was leaving in her wake. "What are you doing?" she repeated, sounding extremely calm again.

Sugar gritted her teeth. "I'm going to destroy that thing."

Scarlett raised an eyebrow. "And not even look where you're going?" She narrowed her eyes. "Or come with a plan?"

"Shut up."

Scarlett sneered. "You're acting like a bitch. An idiot." She paused and smirked. "A loser."

Sugar pounded her armrest. "Shut up!"

Zearth responded to Sugar's anger, moving faster towards the enemy. Scorpion moved backwards in an effort to get away, but seemed to change its mind and instead charge Zearth again. Just before it struck them, Sugar pulled Zearth to the right, dodging the swipe made by its claw.

 _Clank… Clank… Clank…_

"So what did you lose?" Scarlett continued, the smirk not vanishing from her face. "I'm assuming that someone crushed by us on the ground was someone you cared about?"

Sugar ignored Scarlett, focusing her full attention on the Scorpion. the enemy used its tail the strike Zearth again, pushing it back a bit, before Sugar retaliated by slamming it in the side with its arm.

"Or…" Scarlett paused for a moment, deep in thought. "Was it that trophy?"

"I said shut up!" Sugar roared. Zearth responded, letting out a shrill screech, causing most of them to cover their ears. It slammed into Scorpion using its body, sending it flying through the air, landing on its back several blocks away.

"I was right?" Scarlett said innocently. "How surprising. It's too bad you won't be getting it."

Zearth dashed towards the enemy and brought its arms up and stabbed Scorpion directly through its underside. It flailed around, bringing its tail up to strike at them again and striking Zearth's legs with its claws. However, Sugar remained steadfast and continued to pierce the body, eventually finding what she was looking for.

Using the clawed hand, she brought up a small white ball and crushed it with the hand, sending sparks and smoke to pop out of it. "There," she breathed, and out of the corner of her eye, she could've seen Scarlett giggle to herself.

The walls came back up as the room was thrust back into its dull orange glow. Sugar slowly got up from her chair and walked to the center of the cockpit holding herself and shaking.

Sugar had done it. She actually had done it. She had won. not only the fight, but the beauty pageant as well. After seeing her talent there was no way that the judges _wouldn't_ pick her to win, right? Scarlett

As she collapsed onto the floor, the energy draining out of her body, she absently wondered if her family had seen her.

Xxx

The rest of the contestants from of Pahkitew Island stared at Sugar's body, which lay still and silent, in abject horror and complete silence. Finally, strangely enough, it was Dave who spoke up first. "Sugar?" he called out, leaping out of his chair and running over to her body. "You alright?" When she didn't answer he stood there, unsure of what exactly to do.

Jasmine and Shawn were the next to leapt out of their chairs and dash towards the body. "Let me check! I know first aid!" they shouted at the same time, before giving each other confused looks.

Scarlett rolled her eyes at the two's antics and grabbed Sugar's wrist. She frowned slightly, before switching to the other wrist. "She has no pulse," she revealed, much to the everyone else's shock.

"What?!" Max jumped out of his seat and took a few step back.

"No way," Samey whispered.

"You're kidding me," Dave begged. "Please tell me you're kidding."

"H-he was fine just a m-moment ago," Rodney stammered.

"Oh?" Beetle floated down from the ceiling of the cockpit. "Didn't I tell ya?"

Sky narrowed her eyes, while her hands shook at her side. "What are you talking about?" she growled shakily.

Beetle began to float around the cabin, carelessly, as if not paying attention to them. "This robot is powered by human life force." He flew over Max and Amy, before positioning himself in the center of the room. "Meaning that if you pilot Zearth and win…" His eyes gleamed.

"You die."

Xxx

Shawn opened the door to his small, cramped apartment and walking inside, emptying everything from his pockets and placing them on a nearby counter. He practically collapsed into his favorite chair, that was an exact replica of the one in Zearth.

He was practically ready to knock himself, when his doorbell rang. Muttering some profanities, he ran back up to his door and threw it open, only to stop and stare at the man standing in his doorway. "Dad?" he squeaked, his voice betraying his fear.

A middle aged tall man with a dark gray mustache and hair, wearing a tan suit and tie and carrying a large suitcase. He eyed Shawn carefully and peeked inside the small apartment. "Can I come in?" he asked, though his tone made it clear that he wouldn't be taking "no" as an answer.

Shawn nodded mutely, moving out of the way and letting the man. The man walked in and threw himself on a sofa with a large _thump!_ He leaned forward the numerous zombie books on the counter catching his eye.

Shawn quickly grabbed all of his stuff and tossed them into a corner. "What are you doing here, Dad?" he asked the man. "You… You never come here, anymore."

His father seemed surprised. "You didn't hear about the incident in Louisville yet? It's all over the news."

Shawn hesitated and shook his head. "Nope," he said, coming up with an excuse. "I was with a couple of my friends again." He laughed loudly.

His father seemed to unamused, as he pulled a highly rolled stack of papers from his suitcase and placed it on the counter. Shawn looked at it curiously, finding Zearth on the front page of the stack. "One of your friends talked in the police station," he told Shawn, grimly. "We also have the witness account from the interns on the island."

Shawn eyes widened. "They did?" he gasped, before realizing he had himself had just given it away their secret.

His father nodded and folded his hands into his lap. "What can you tell me about Zearth, Shawn?"

* * *

 **Plot Twist.**

 **A poll is up on my profile if you would like to vote. It might have an effect on the later chapters of this fic so voting would be in your best interest. :)**

 **Review and constructive criticism are appreciated!**


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